The bill authorizes the state to begin selling $4.5 billion in voter-approved bonds that includes $2.6 billion to build an initial 130-mile stretch of the high-speed rail line in the agriculturally rich Central Valley. That allows the state to draw another $3.2 billion in federal funding.

The first segment of the line will run from Madera to Bakersfield.

Senate Republicans blasted the decision, citing the state's ongoing budget problems. They said project would push California over a fiscal cliff. No GOP senators voted for the bill Friday.

The final cost of the completed project from Los Angeles to San Francisco is projected to be $68 billion.

"It's unfortunate that the majority would rather spend billions of dollars that we don't have for a train to nowhere than keep schools open and harmless from budget cuts," Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, said in a statement.

Dan Richard, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is managing the project, said California would have lost billions of dollars in federal aid if the Senate fails to pass the bill before adjourning Friday for a monthlong recess.

Considering the state of California's fiscal situation, I would think the bonds sold to finance a bullet train would have to be on a par with Confederate currency. While the idea of a bullet train has merit, the idea of it being built and/or run by the government is laughable. Just look at Amtrak for proof.

Good. The best way to deal with budget problems like these is to invest in your infrastructure and create a more productive business climate. This rail project will probably create as many jobs as the stupid pipeline John Boehner has so much money invested in, and at least this will actually benefit the people in California, instead of just helping Canadians and Chinese profit from our right of way. And by selling bonds the state treasury is not further strained right now when they need to be spending tax dollars on more important priorities.

Is there no Republican in America who's ever heard of John Maynard Keynes???

He was one of the fathers of the Bretton Woods accord, which established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and which put in place a system of fixed exchange rates.Keynes provided both a specific rationale for government's taking a bigger role in theeconomy and a more general confidence in the ability of government to intervene and manageeffectively. Despite Keynes's fascination with uncertainty and his speculative talents in themarketplace, Keynesians deemed "government knowledge" to be superior to that of themarketplace.